Lady Bird is a 2017 American coming-of-age comedy drama film written and directed by Greta Gerwig in her solo directorial debut, starring Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts, Lucas Hedges, Timothée Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein, Stephen McKinley Henderson, and Lois Smith.

The film received widespread critical acclaim, with high praise drawn to Gerwig's screenplay and direction, and the performances of Ronan and Metcalf.

In the fall of 2002, Christine McPherson, who calls herself "Lady Bird", is a senior at a Catholic high school[a] in Sacramento, California.

Over the course of the film, Marion and Lady Bird repeatedly connect, only for things to fall apart when one of the two equally strong-willed women makes a cutting remark.

After she is suspended from school for heckling a guest speaker at an anti-abortion assembly, Jenna tries to visit her and learns that Lady Bird gave her a fake address in an affluent neighborhood.

Marion begs Lady Bird to focus on California colleges, revealing that her father Larry has lost his job and cannot afford out-of-state tuition.

Lady Bird's college counselor points out that her application essay shows a great deal of love for Sacramento.

Despite Marion's concerns, Larry secretly encourages Lady Bird to apply to her dream schools, resolving to refinance their home mortgage if necessary.

When admissions decisions are released, Lady Bird is dismayed to hear that her presumptive destination is UC Davis, just 20 minutes away.

Danny accidentally mentions the waitlist in front of Marion, who gives Lady Bird the silent treatment for the rest of the summer, even after she is accepted.

[10] To prepare the cast and crew, Gerwig gave them her old high-school yearbooks, photos, and journals, as well as passages written by Joan Didion, and she took them on a tour of her hometown.

[13][14] She told Sam Levy, the director of photography on the film, that she wanted it to feel "like a memory,"[15] and said that she "sought to offer a female counterpart to tales like The 400 Blows and Boyhood.

[16] In September 2015, Gerwig met with Saoirse Ronan at the Toronto International Film Festival, where they were promoting Maggie's Plan and Brooklyn, respectively.

[22][23][24] Principal photography was scheduled to begin in March 2016, but was delayed to August because of Ronan's commitments to a Broadway production of The Crucible.

[28] To put the cast and crew at ease by knowing exactly how the day would run, Gerwig, using a technique she learned from filmmaker Rebecca Miller, arrived an hour before everyone else.

[39] In its third weekend, the film expanded to 238 theaters, and grossed a three-day total of $2.5 million, finishing eighth at the box office.

The website's critical consensus reads "Lady Bird delivers fresh insights about the turmoil of adolescence and reveals debuting writer-director Greta Gerwig as a fully formed filmmaking talent.

[53] A. O. Scott of The New York Times described Lady Bird as "big-screen perfection ... exceptionally well-written, full of wordplay and lively argument.

"[54] Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter wrote the film was "modestly scaled but creatively ambitious" and "succeeds on its own terms as a piquant audience pleaser", and gave praise to Ronan, who he said "just seems to keep getting better all the time.

[47] Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote the film was "simply beautiful" and "warm and inspired", hailing the performances of Ronan and Metcalf as well as Gerwig's direction and screenplay.

[56] The Washington Post's Ann Hornaday described the film as a "triumph of style, sensibility and spirit" while similarly praising Ronan's performance and Gerwig's direction.

[60] In Paste, Jim Vorel argued that the film portrays an abusive maternal relationship and noted the similarities of Marion's behavior to those with borderline personality disorder.

[70] In February 2018, on an episode of The A24 Podcast, Gerwig expressed interest in making spiritual successors to Lady Bird, saying "I would like to do a quartet of Sacramento films" modeled on the Neapolitan Novels of Elena Ferrante.